Monthly Archives: November 2009

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We’ve spent lots of time this autumn collecting apples and distributing them at apple days, but we haven’t really had the opportunity to get many of them to local shops. So as the nights are getting shorter we’re spending a bit of time packing apples and pears from our store into boxes ready for distribution.

We’re also talking to the Cyrenians Good Food program with a view to giving them some of our fruit to be distributed to some of the 50+ homeless shelters they work with. That’s a fantastic result when you think that without our efforts most of these apples would have gone to landfill rather than people’s bellies. Well done everyone!

We’ve made apple juice, apple jelly, apple pie, apple crumble, apple cheese, apple rings, and apple wine. There isn’t much we haven’t tried…. but we still have plenty of apples. So what to do with the surplus?

The reduced leather

Last weekend we had a go at one of the few recipes we hadn’t yet tried – apple leather. No, it’s not for making shoes, it’s for eating. The best bit about this recipe is that it doesn’t need any extra ingredients, you can make it with apples that at the end of their lifespan, and it’s even popular with the kids.

All you need to do is chop and slowly puree apples on a low heat before seiving out the pips. Put the remainder in a shallow baking tray and leave it in an open oven on a low heat, or even on top of a warm boiler. I tried one in an aga, and the other on top of the boiler. Both experiments worked quite well, leaving us with something resembling an old fashioned Wham! bar after 24-48 hours. When it’s ready you can just peel it out of the tray and chop it into bite sized pieces.